1.Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to tools for dispensing wire. More particularly, the invention concerns a novel wear surface cover clip for covering the wear surfaces of a wire dispensing reel for dispensing tie wire used for tying rebar.
2.Discussion of the Prior Art
During construction and before pouring concrete into the concrete forms, an array of reinforcement bars, commonly known as rebar, are erected within the forms so that when the concrete is poured, the resultant structure is strengthened by the rebar. Traditionally, intersecting sections of rebar are tied together by hand with a malleable wire known as rebar wire.
During the rebar wiring process, it is common practice for the worker to continuously pull the rebar wire from a coil of wire on a reel contained within a hollow housing in a manner such that the end of the wire never leaves the hand of the worker. For example, a worker tying up a rebar slab may completely use a coil of wire without ever letting go of the pulled end of the wire.
Often, the wire dispensing reels are provided with belt receiving loops so that the reels can be mounted upon the belts of the workman so that the wire can be conveniently withdrawn from the wire coils mounted therewithin by pulling the wire out of the casing through one or more openings formed in the casing wall. Typically, the edges of the openings in the casing wall are provided with curved wear surfaces over which the wire passes as it is drawn from the dispensing reel.
As the wire is continuously removed from the reel and passes over the wear surfaces, it will tend to cause severe wear to the wear surfaces and eventually will cut one or more grooves therein of the character shown in FIG. 1. When the wire falls into one of these grooves during the rebar tying operation, the worker will experience binding as a result of the wire being pulled at an angle in a very tight groove as the worker ties from left to right. Further, as the wire is pulled from the coil, it normally tends to travel back and forth over the wear surface of the dispensing reel so that when the wire falls into a groove in the wear surface, severe binding occurs.
Tie wire used in construction typically comes in three gauges, 16.5 gauge (thinnest) used for tying smaller rebar and for 15 gauge (heavy) for tying large and heavy rebar. Tie Wire is packaged and delivered in quantity usually in heavy cardboard boxes with some type of rust inhibitor protection. Often a worker will open a box to find the coils either heavily coated in oil, completely dry or in a progressively rusted state. Experience has shown that whatever the condition of the wire, it has adverse affects on the wear surface of the tie wire dispenser with the rust acting as an abrasive addition to the wire and the oil acting as a cutting fluid.
Further contributing to the wear problems of the prior art wire dispensing reels are the materials used in the manufacture of the wire reels. Such materials range from plastic to untreated steel to sand cast aluminum all of which are well below the hardness of the malleable tie wire. As will be discussed hereinafter, the wear surface cover clip of the present invention is advantageously constructed from stainless steel because it is of its hardness, availability, cost and ease of manuafacture. However, other alloys and carbon compositions of appropriate hardness can also be used to construct the cover clip. For example, galvanized sheet metal has also proven to be acceptable.
Dispensing reels of various construction are readily commercially available from a number of sources, including Klein Tools of Skokie, Ill., and Don De Christo Concrete Accessories, Inc. of Westminster, Calif. A dispensing reel for tie wires is also disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,683,000 issued to its Belderwell. Reference should be made to this patent for a discussion of the construction and operation of dispensing reels of the character with which the wear surface cover clip of the present invention can be used.